Westminster debate
| 16:48 UK time, Wednesday, 16 August 2006
As you may have heard, about 150 MPs have called for Parliament to be recalled from its summer break to debate the crisis in the Middle East and last week's security alert at British airports.
In a letter to the leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, they said: "There is huge concern in the country about the current Middle East crisis, and fear that the early failure to insist that Israel and Hizbullah observe an immediate ceasefire has cost many innocent lives."
Number 10 has rejected this call and said earlier this week that with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the situation has changed significantly since that letter was sent - and so there are no plans to recall Parliament at present.
So we decided The World Tonight should step in instead to give MPs an opportunity to have their say. We've tried to organize it so it resembles as closely as possible a Parliamentary debate - and so far about a dozen MPs from all sides have agreed to come back to London to take part (with Robin Lustig in the role of 'Mr Speaker').
The debate will begin on our sister programme, PM (which will carry the start), and then there'll be an hour long special on Radio 4 at 9pm before we get reaction to the debate on The World Tonight.
The idea is to hear what our elected representatives think about what has been going on in the Middle East and for them to debate what British policy should be.
Organising something like this takes a lot of time and patience - it requires an awful lot of what our journalists refer to unfondly as 'phone-bashing' - ringing lots of people trying to see if they will take part, and to their credit some MPs are making a serious effort to join us - cancelling constituency business or coming to London from Scotland for the day.
Some MPs turned us down because they are unable to break constituency engagements, many are on holiday but some have told us they feel we in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are too cynical and critical of the government. Even the reassurance that they will not be interviewed in the traditonal format but will be debating with each other was not enough to assuage them - which is a pity and doesn't reflect well on the state of relations between some politicians and the media, but that's a debate for another day.
If you get a chance to listen - it will be carried live on the R4 website.
Comments
On the one hand our politicians complain that we, the electorate, aren't engaged enough - then, when they are given the opportunity to debate something they want to debate and, more importantly, something the electorate want them to debate, they refuse - c'mon do they really want our votes or not?
I'd also like to comment on the recent refusal of the cabinet office to release details of Prescott's responsibilities - they really have presented the most ridiculous excuse - excuse me, if our politicians are open to scrutiny then they may choose not to do their jobs under scrutiny - where does that come from? Sofa politics? Look where that got them - one dead civil servant, a public whitewash, sorry enquiry at public expense. I really hope Auntie takes this one to the FOI commissioner. The FOI act was intended to give us access to this kind of information.
of course, they won't have any legal protection from prosecution during your debate..
Labour MPs can rest easy, their Hezbollah terrorist friends are mostly alive and well and are celebrating their perceived victory among the rubble that was Lebanon while they catch their breath waiting to be resupplied with more rockets by Iran and Syria. Sleep soundly George Galloway, if things weren't bad enough already, the French are going in under the aegis of the UN to muck it up even more. In all likelihood, you'll have another opportunity for debate when the war to destroy Isreal resumes in a few months...or weeks. Relax and go back to your vacation George, international peace and domestic tranquility are not about to break out anytime soon.
I don't blame those MPs who aren't engaging in this ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ stunt. It is just what we needed: Another ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ soapbox, under the guise of "News", for bashing Israel, the US, Blair, the Iraq War, Afgahanistan, etc... Al Jazeera is actually more objective.
"some have told us they feel we in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are too cynical and critical of the government."
Some people who aren't Labour MPs believe that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is not sufficiently cynical and critical of the government, and has not been sufficiently cynical and critical ever since the Hutton debacle.
M. Fernandez: Perhaps if more people took part, it'd be less about what the people who have a point to make have to say. I don't see how any supposed ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ bias can have anything to do with a debate between our elected representatives.
One of the media's purpose is to be critical of those in power and the actions they make, but that's not what this is about.
Assuming this is done how it appears, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ will have as much affect on the way the debate happens as they do when they show parliament on TV.
I'll be listening in.
Is the list on the radio 4 site complete or were there more people there?
The full line-up, in order of speaking, was: Lord Triesman (Labour), Minister of State at the Foreign Office; Simon Hughes (Lib Dem); Douglas Carswell (Con); Ann Cryer (Lab); Mike Weir (SNP); Mike Gapes (Lab); Jeremy Hunt (Con); Susan Kramer (Lib Dem); Brooks Newmark (Con); Phyllis Starkey (Lab); Tim Yeo (Con); Andrew Dismore (Lab).
A recording of the full debate is available via the Radio 4 website.